


The daycare dilemma

by OtterAndTerrier



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: (or EU), F/M, Gen, Good Parent Han Solo, Good Parent Leia Organa, Good Parents Leia Organa and Han Solo, Kid Fic, Not Canon Compliant, Parenthood, Parents Han and Leia, Post-Star Wars: Return of the Jedi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-21
Updated: 2020-09-21
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:35:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26573839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OtterAndTerrier/pseuds/OtterAndTerrier
Summary: Han and Leia's baby daughter starts daycare today... or does she? | Just a fluffy fic about Han and Leia being doting new parents and making decisions together.
Relationships: Han Solo & Jaina Solo, Leia Organa & Jaina Solo, Leia Organa/Han Solo
Comments: 16
Kudos: 34
Collections: HanLeia Challenge





	The daycare dilemma

**Author's Note:**

> Written for **[hanleiachallenge](https://hanleiachallenge.tumblr.com/)** 's September prompt, "children". Many thanks to **lajulie** for her always valuable suggestions, and to the folks who've been reading snippets and encouraging me to finish this.
> 
> Although there is an Organa-Solo daughter named Jaina, this fic is not EU compliant.

It was with great effort that Leia waited until she’d had a meeting with her staff, taken a holocall conference with Mon Mothma and quickly scanned her messages before calling her husband. It was a big day, and she had been at war with conflicting emotions for the week leading up to it: it was the day her baby started going to daycare in the mornings.

Technically, the first day had been last Friday, as a test run: both she and Han had dropped her off together for a couple of hours, and spent the rest of the morning trying to distract the other from worrying too much. Today, Leia’s first day back in her Senate office, they had agreed that Han would take the baby to daycare, since Jaina had fallen back asleep after her breakfast.

Leia was actually a bit annoyed at Han: there had been no messages from him so far telling her how everything had gone. Maybe he, like her, had been waiting to catch up on his messages before calling her. He had left Chewie in charge of their shipping business for the first two months after Jaina’s birth and then started working from home, as Leia had, occasionally dropping by his facility; today was his first day fully back, too. Leia wondered if it was easier for him, the shift from parent to professional; if he was feeling free and relieved instead of guilty and anxious. The daycare they had carefully chosen and interviewed at a couple of months before the baby was born was the best in the city. They had been encouraged to contact their daughter’s appointed caregiver at any point for updates, and the caregiver periodically sent parents cute pictures of their children to ease the separation. Leia thought it was odd she hadn’t gotten anything yet; she wanted to ask Han if he had, and if not, if it was too soon to ask for an update.

Taking a deep breath, she sent a call request for Han.

A hologram materialized in front of her on the desk, and it took her overtired, longing brain a second to understand the implications of what she was seeing.

‘Hey, sweetheart!’ Han said cheerfully, smiling at the holoprojector. Only the upper part of his body was visible; or rather: only his head was visible over the snug carrier from which the tiny, adorable human they had co-created looked out and played with her own impossibly small hands.

That sight never failed to make her feel warm inside, and she could do nothing to stop a smile from lighting up her face. It clashed with the accusatory ‘Han!’ she let out.

‘Why is she with you? What happened?’

‘What? Oh,’ Han said; Leia had the impression he had been somehow hoping she wouldn’t notice the baby strapped to his chest. He gave her a sheepish smile. ‘I didn’t drop her off.’

Leia rolled her eyes.

‘Yes, I can see that.’

Hearing her mother’s voice, the baby smiled and cried out loudly at Leia’s holo—although Leia was sure it was too faint for her daughter to really see her.

‘Who’s that?’ Han told her, pointing at the tridimensional image of Leia. ‘Is that your mama? Yeah, that’s your mama!’

Trying to push back the tears that threatened to spill out at that adorable image, Leia waved and said, ‘Hi, baby, hi. What are you doing there with daddy, huh? Weren’t you supposed to be at daycare today?’

‘She was, but then her old dad thought we could start her off early in the business. We’re havin’ fun here, ain’t we, little starfighter?’ Han said, not looking at Leia but at the baby, who was wriggling and cooing a lot. Through their particular connection in the Force, Leia could sense her daughter’s feelings of distress and confusion at her mother not picking her up, mild as they were. Leia decided she would make this short and pick it up later at home, to avoid making the baby cry and throwing Han off his rhythm. She also desperately needed to pump soon; her breasts had been getting uncomfortable enough even before she saw Jaina.

‘I bet you are, but a hangar is no place for a baby,’ she replied sweetly as she tried to soothe her child. She still had a lot of qualms about using the Force—an issue that sometimes contributed to bouts of anxiety—and yet, in moments like this, Leia was really glad that she had finally taken Luke up on his offer to train her shortly after she and Han had decided they wanted to have a child.

Diplomatically, she let Han have his say about how of course he was not doing anything dangerous, just paperwork and calls, and some minor repairs at the  _ Falcon _ , but nothing with fire, obviously.

‘Han,’ she interrupted, ‘I know you wouldn’t put her in danger. It’s not that. We’ll talk when I get home, all right?’

Her husband didn’t look keen on resuming the subject anytime soon, but he just nodded.

‘I love you both,’ said Leia before ending the call. For a little while, she had to focus on caressing her daughter’s Force presence until she was soothed, but soon enough Leia felt her bubbling with thrill at her little discoveries and the voice of her father once again.

She was constantly amazed by Han as he grew into fatherhood. The rough smuggler she’d met, with the soft heart she’d fallen in love with, had turned out to be quite the family man. Leia had known he’d be a great companion to their children as they grew up: he was a natural at taking people under his wing, at caring for them without  _ seeming _ like he was caring for them, at offering just as much as the other person was willing to take. But she hadn’t known just how patient, attentive and adoring he could be with their little girl.

When Leia got home that afternoon, the living room and kitchen were empty but, as she walked into the apartment, she could hear someone talking in their bedroom—more precisely, she could hear her husband’s slightly out of tune, but still pleasant, voice singing one of his favourite Corellian songs. 

‘I’m home,’ she called out, walking down the hallway.

‘We’re here,’ Han said cheerfully over his shoulder as he finished changing Jaina’s diapers.

‘Traditionally, one is supposed to sing  _ lullabies _ to babies, you know,’ she teased from the doorway. ‘Not rock songs.’

‘Bah, lullabies got nothin’ on The Boss,’ he answered. Leia crossed the doorway to stand next to him; seeing her, the baby started gurgling and kicking her arms and legs happily.

‘Hi, Jaina,’ Leia said, running her hand delicately over her daughter’s head, arms and belly before picking her up. She pressed her lips into Jaina’s temple and kissed her several times, inhaling her baby smell.

‘I know I’m not that cute, but don’t I get a kiss too?’ Han asked, hands on his hips. Leia tilted up her head and kissed him when he leaned down.

‘I was just about to start dinner,’ he told her, leading the way out and towards the kitchen. ‘You hungry?’

Jaina started fussing and whimpering in Leia’s arms, as if in response to Han’s question. Han laughed.

‘I wasn’t talkin’ to you, little lady,’ he said.

‘I am hungry, too,’ Leia said, sitting at the kitchen table and beginning to unbutton her shirt as she held the impatient baby against her chest. ‘But first I want to know why didn’t you take Jaina to daycare like we’d agreed on and didn’t tell me until I called.’

Han cringed a little, as if he’d hoped she had forgotten about the subject, or as if Leia’s words didn’t match what he thought he’d done at the time.

‘Ah, fine,’ he muttered in resignation. He washed his hands on the sink, then turned around and leaned against the kitchen cabinets, his hands braced on the countertop. ‘I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, Leia, I wasn’t tryin’ to hide it or anything. I thought you’d be upset and thinkin’ about it if I told you right away, so I thought I’d wait till you called. And then I got to work and got distracted.’

‘All right,’ Leia conceded with a nod, a finger brushing distractedly over Jaina’s soft cheek as she nursed. ‘But  _ why  _ didn’t you drop her off? This was supposed to be for both of us.’

‘I just couldn’t do it. We got to the door and she was babblin’ away and I thought… I couldn’t do that to her, just leave her there when she seemed so happy, you know?’ Han stared at their daughter in her arms. Leia thought that was almost unfair. How could she ever make a case against that look? 

And yet, she had to.

‘I do know, Han,’ she said softly. ‘We knew it wouldn’t be easy. That’s why I felt… well, a bit betrayed, honestly, when I saw you two together today. Because that wasn’t what we’d talked about and I just—I don’t know, I thought it would be easier if we both were doing this, if we both were missing her and feeling guilty about leaving her, but you decided not to go through that—and I had to, because you didn’t tell me.’

Han’s face crumpled with worry and he crossed the space between them in two strides. Holding her shoulders, he pressed a kiss to the crown of her head.

‘I’m sorry. I didn’t think about that,’ he said, rubbing his thumbs against the base of her neck. ‘I just thought there’d be no harm taking her to work with me today, putting off daycare for a bit… ‘cos, you know, it really was no bother, havin’ her there with me.’

‘Yes, well…’ Leia paused to switch the baby to the other side; a tender smile blossomed on her face as Jaina’s hand opened and closed sleepily over her chest. ‘It was only one day, though, the first day back. You can’t take her with you every day and get any real work done—and you definitely can’t take her with you if you start going on trips again.’

‘What if I didn’t?’

Leia tilted her head up to look at him.

‘What?’

Han pulled up a chair and sat down in front of her, gently grabbing Jaina’s socked feet and stroking the plant.

‘What if I didn’t go back yet… or maybe just not every day,’ he said. ‘Business’ gettin’ on well without me, there’s no hurry getting back there. I could stay with her, keep working from home.’

Leia stared at him for a moment.

‘You’d really want to do that? Be a partial stay-at-home dad for a while?’

Han shrugged.

‘I don’t mind. Look, I know that’s what we decided and I thought I could do it, but… she’s still so little.’

‘She is,’ Leia said, cleaning up before burping her drowsy daughter, holding her against her shoulder.

‘Feels wrong to leave her every day, even if it’s just half a day,’ Han muttered, leaning forward with his elbows on his thighs, his eyes fixed absently on the corner of the table.

He wouldn’t say it, not now, but Leia could follow the secret train of thought that was likely running through his head. How his father had walked out of his life before Han could have formed any memories of him. How he could barely remember a few happy memories with his mother, Jaina’s namesake, and had thought for a long time that she had left him behind, too, only to find years later that she had been killed. How he had lacked the kindness and nurturing of a parent growing up. The mere possibility of putting his daughter through the same pain, of failing her, of her ever believing he didn’t care enough, scared him more than most things in life these days, Leia knew.

She reached out silently and squeezed his hand; Han held it back and looked up.

‘I thought this would be a good idea because I thought it was what we both wanted,’ Leia began slowly. ‘Being a parent, having her… it’s amazing… but it’s been exhausting. I needed to go back to the office, and not just because I have to. I thought you wanted to get out of the house, too. But if this is what you want to do, we can give it a try. I suppose we could still leave her at daycare a couple of times a week, if you want to start doing the trips again or anything else.’

‘Yeah,’ Han said enthusiastically. ‘Will you be okay with that?’

Leia bit her lip, thinking as she leaned back on the chair, Jaina now asleep against her neck.

‘I actually do think I’d feel more at ease knowing she’s with you. I just didn’t know this was a possibility, until now.’

‘And hey, this way, I can bring her to your office for lunch, too,’ Han suggested.

‘I’d like that,’ Leia said, smiling at him. Then, a thought occurred to her and she frowned. ‘Did you even let those people know you weren’t dropping her off, or are we already starting on the wrong foot with them?’

Han’s pleased expression fell a little, and he rubbed a hand against his chin.

‘Ah, well… I might have forgotten about that. They called me ‘bout half an hour after I was supposed to get there. I don’t think they were very happy with me.’

Leia shook her head, a challenging eyebrow raising in his direction.

‘Then you better give them your best dad charm, hotshot, because we are  _ not _ looking for another daycare.’

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and comments are treasured!


End file.
